MTV to relive prank many want to forget

August 31, 2003

WINNETKA — Thanks to MTV, Aaron Winkler is reliving a senior prank at New Trier Township High School that school officials would just as soon forget.

Days before graduation in June 2000, Winkler and a friend made 600 copies of the Winnetka school's master key, then sent them to students chosen randomly from a phone directory. The dynamic duo 'fessed up and were punished after school officials threatened to call the FBI, said Winkler, 21. He said he paid $1,250 in restitution and served 200 hours of community service.

"My friend and I were shaking," said Winkler. "They said, `If you turn yourself in by 9 a.m. the next morning, we won't press charges.'"

This summer, after another New Trier graduate wrote to MTV to describe the prank, the music television producers descended upon the North Shore in an effort to re-create it. MTV plans to air it in October, according to an MTV producer.

But it won't be with any help from Supt. Henry "Hank" Bangser. He refused to allow the television crew to film inside the school, where officials spent $100,000 to replace locks and keys after the prank.